Arranging on-demand services based on one or more predefined rules

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016110836-A1
Application number	US-201414520095-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 21, 2014
Priority date	Oct 21, 2014
Publication date	Apr 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A transport request for a transport service for a user can be received from a user device. Based, at least in part, on information from the transport request, a computing system can determine that the transport request is subject to one or more rules stored in a rules database accessible by the computing system. In response to determining that the transport request is subject to one or more rules, the computing system can determine whether the transport request is valid based, at least in part, on the one or more rules and information from the transport request. In response to determining that the transport request is valid, the transport request can be processed to select a driver to provide the transport service for the user. In addition, the cost for the transport service can be paid by an entity other than the user.

First claim

What is being claimed is:

1 . A method of arranging a transport service, the method being performed by a computing system and comprising:
receiving, from a user device, a transport request for a transport service for a user operating the user device, the transport request including (i) an identifier (ID) associated with the user or the user device, (ii) a transport type information, (iii) a pickup location, and (iv) a payment profile ID; based, at least in part, on the payment profile ID, determining, at the computing system, that the transport request is subject to one or more rules stored in a rules database accessible by the computing system; in response to determining that the transport request is subject to one or more rules, determining, at the computing system, whether the transport request is valid based, at least in part, on (i) the one or more rules, and (ii) at least one of the transport type information or the pickup location; and in response to determining that the transport request is valid, processing the transport request, wherein processing the transport request includes selecting a driver to provide the transport service for the user.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the transport request is subject to one or more rules includes (i) determining that the user is associated with a group of users, wherein information about the group is stored in a group database accessible by the computing system, and (ii) determining that the one or more rules are specified for the group.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein determining that the transport request is subject to one or more rules includes identifying the group from the group database using the payment profile ID, and wherein the group is associated with one or more payment profiles, including a payment profile corresponding to the payment profile ID.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the transport request also includes a destination location, and wherein the transport type information included in the transport request corresponds to a carpool transport type;
wherein a rule of the one or more rules specifies that when transport requests are made for the carpool transport type, the computing system is to first attempt to select a second user to share at least a portion of the transport service with the user from the group of users before attempting to select from other users not in the group; and wherein processing the transport request includes selecting the second user from the group of users based on the pickup location and the destination location, and a second pickup location and a second destination location of the second user.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a rule of the one or more rules specifies that transport requests are only to be made for a particular transport type; and
wherein determining whether the transport request is valid includes determining whether the transport type information included in the transport request corresponds to the particular transport type specified by the rule.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a rule of the one or more rules specifies that transport requests are only to be made for a particular transport type when an estimated time of arrival (ETA) of the particular transport type for the transport service is equal to or less than a predetermined amount of time; and
wherein determining whether the transport request is valid includes (i) determining the ETA of the particular transport type that is based on the pickup location included in the transport request, and (ii) determining whether the transport type information included in the transport request corresponds to the particular transport type specified by the rule, or determining whether the ETA of the particular transport type is greater than the predetermined amount of time specified by the rule.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a rule of the one or more rules specifies that transport requests are to have a particular pickup location region; and
wherein determining whether the transport request is valid includes determining whether the pickup location included in the transport request is within the particular pickup location region specified by the rule.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a rule of the one or more rules specifies that transport requests are to be made during a predetermined duration of time; and
wherein determining whether the transport request is valid includes determining whether the transport request has been received by the computing system at a time during the predetermined duration of time.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a rule of the one or more rules specifies that transport requests are only to be made a maximum number of times by the user during a predetermined duration of time; and
wherein determining whether the transport request is valid includes (i) accessing a user database to determine an account of the user based on the identifier, and (ii) determining, from the account, a number of previous transport services that were completed for the user during the predetermined duration of time specified by the rule.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, at the computing system, that the transport service has been completed for the user based on information received from a driver device of the selected driver; determining, at the computing device, a cost for the transport service based on location information and time information of the transport service; and based on the one or more rules, determining, at the computing device, what portion of the cost to charge to a financial account associated with the payment profile ID.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein a rule of the one or more rules specifies that costs for transport services can be paid using the account associated with the payment profile ID when transport services are completed at a particular destination location region.

12 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computing system, causes the computing system to:
receiving, from a user device, a transport request for a transport service for a user operating the user device, the transport request including (i) an identifier (ID) associated with the user or the user device, (ii) a transport type information, (iii) a pickup location, and (iv) a payment profile ID; based, at least in part, on the payment profile ID, determining, at the computing system, that the transport request is subject to one or more rules stored in a rules database accessible by the computing system; in response to determining that the transport request is subject to one or more rules, determining, at the computing system, whether the transport request is valid based, at least in part, on (i) the one or more rules, and (ii) at least one of the transport type information or the pickup location; if the transport request is determined to be invalid, transmitting, to the user device, a message indicating that the transport request is invalid; and if the transport request is determined to be valid, processing the transport request, wherein processing the transport request includes selecting a driver to provide the transport service for the user.

13 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause the computing system to:
if the transport request is determined to be invalid, (i) determine at least one of textual data corresponding to a proper transport type or textual data corresponding to a proper pickup location as required by the one or more rules for the transport request to be valid

Assignees

• Uber Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Garg Sunil Kumar
• Farrelly Stacey Corwin
• Mckillen Ryan David
• Choksi Maya Paritosh

Classifications

• G06Q20/405

  Establishing or using transaction specific rules · CPC title

• G06Q50/30 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q50/40 Primary

  Business processes related to the transportation industry (shipping G06Q10/083) · CPC title